“It didn’t happen the way you’re thinking.”
“How do you mean?”
Kalder sighed and reached for his breeches. “Scáthach had come to me father’s kingdom. I was in Wyñeria when I first saw her. She seduced me there and told me of Dún Scáith”—the fortress of shadows—“and said that if I was man enough, skilled enough, that I should fight me way into her fortress and that she’d train me to be an even greater warrior than me father.”
“And of course you did.”
He winked at her. “Of course I did. Had me reputation to live up to, don’t you know?”
Cameron couldn’t fault the woman for being entranced by Kalder, and she wished she had known him then. Had he been as handsome as a young man as he was now?
“Was she much older than you?”
“Aye, quite a bit, but it didn’t matter. She was still beautiful beyond belief and I was stunned that a queen of her caliber was taken by a boy of me age.”
“And how old were you?”
“I’d just turned ten-and-five.”
Cameron was stunned by his words. “You were far too young for her.”
“She thought not.”
Cameron rolled her eyes at his arrogant boasting. Typical male to say such. “Have you seen her since you left your training?”
“Nay. It’s not how she does things. As her name goes, she’s the Lady Shadow.”
That was what they said, but still…
“Do you miss her?”
“Nay, I barely knew her, even though I lived in her lands for a year. Again, she’s a creature of mystery and likes it that way. I don’t think anyone has ever really known much of anything about her. Not even her children.”
Kalder helped Cameron dress while she reflected on what they’d done, and everything she’d learned about him and his family, and world.
As she smoothed her gown over her stomach, she paused her hand there. Surely she wasn’t pregnant. The women in her tavern were forever carrying on with men, and seldom did they seem to come up pregnant over it. Lettice and Paden had been lovers for almost two years before she’d conceived.…
Even so, the prospect of having Kalder’s baby wasn’t quite asscary to her as it should be. Instead, a part of her that was terrified almost hoped for it.
What would it be like to have a child growing inside her? To see Kalder play father to a child of his own?
He would be a good, kind da, she was certain, like her own father had been to her and Paden. Protective and loving. Patient.
But with that thought came the bitter reminder of what had happened to her father. Of the hard, harsh life he’d lived.
Kalder had even more enemies out to end him.
He’s not human.…
Neither are you.
And that was the most sobering thought of all. Their children would be forever hunted. For his abilities and for hers. They’d never know peace. Or safety.
Instinctively, she flinched away from him.
“Cameron?”
“Forgive me,” she said, forcing those thoughts out of her mind.
